Herbert has no regrets

Press, 13 March 1986, Page 22

Herbert has no regrets

By NZPA staff

correspondent,

HUGH BARLOW

London The New Zealand soccer captain, Ricki Herbert, who was due to fly out of Britain yesterday, said he had no regrets about quitting English professional football. Tired of arguments with the Wolverhampton Wanderers manager, Mr Sammy Chapman, and despondent at playing at the bottom of the third division, Herbert has cancelled his contract and was looking forward to getting home. “I’ve got no regrets, and I’m not disappointed that much,” he said.

“I think if I had been at a club that was doing really well and was in the promotion hunt, or in the top 10 and I found I wasn’t going to hold a regular position, then I would have been disappointed. “But when you’re at the bottom of the third division, it’s a totally different thing.” Herbert signed for Wolves while in Britain during the New Zealand team’s 1984 tour.

What promised to be a happy introduction to big time football turned sour as the club steadily slipped down the points table, chopped and changed managers, and lurched from one financial crisis to another. Herbert cited differences with Mr Chapman,

especially over which position he should play, as the main reason for his decision to return to New Zealand. He had tried to find a position with another English club, but after two months on the transfer list had had no offers. Herbert said he did not think he would lose anything by returning to domestic football.

“The way the side (Wolves) Is playing at the moment it would be no different from playing for Mount Wellington, or Gisborne, or somebody like that.

“And I want to get myself into a winning team again — I’ve been two seasons at the bottom of the table — and I want to establish myself back in the national team,” he said. Valuable lessons had been learned during his spell in England, Herbert said.

“I feel in myself a much better player, and I just hope that’s going to show when I get back home.”

He said he did not know who he would play for when the New Zealand season started on March 28 “but there’s one or two clubs I can definitely go to”.

Herbert said he was in no hurry to return to Britain. Nothing short of an offer from a leading first division club could persuade him to go through the disruption of moving again, he said.